Setting sail every day to discover new shores

Cederberg Rock Art

Cartographer and keen hiker Peter Slingsby reckons that Southern Africa probably has the richest legacy of Rock Art in the world. He is of the opinion that the Western Cape, and particularly the area from the Cederberg to the Agter Pakhuis, may have more rock paintings per square kilometre than anywhere else in Southern Africa.

I went off to the Cederberg Mountains via Pakhuis Pass to have a look at the Khoisan rock art on Bushmans Kloof where 138 separate places provided the canvas for examples of this ancient art on the 6500ha property.

The Eland features prominently in the Bushman paintings because of its spiritual and religious interpretation. When it looks as if some of the Eland was drawn without a head or legs it’s probably because the paint used to draw these has faded. Bushman art leaves much to guesswork. Nothing is as it seems – just like art!